Dana Levinson

Dana is a musical theatre composer/lyricist, arranger, and orchestrator. Music and Lyrics: 5th Republic (NYMF 2011 under the title Les Enfants de Paris), MADAME , Bathory. Arranging and Orchestration: Gypsy of the Year: Avenue Q Presentation (Minskoff Theatre, Broadway), Joanna Gleason: In Bloom , Well-Strung , LUDO's Broken Bride, Monica's Mixing Bowl, San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Film Scoring: The Waystation in the Stars (dir. Brandon Morrissey), Monica's Mixing Bowl . Dana graduated from the New School with honors with a degree in Musical Theatre and a minor in Global Studies. She is a 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and studies Oud and Arabic music with the conductor of the New York Arabic Orchestra, Bassam Saba.

Q. How do you identify? How do you see your relationship to the queer community?I like the term "Queer." Generally I identify as a straight woman. But pre transitioning, I outwardly presented as a gay man and had come out as gay when I was 12. Having reached a point where I largely assimilate into "cis-normative" culture in terms of how others, particularly strangers, perceive me, I like the term "Queer" as almost an all encompassing identity that takes into account both my 'transness' and my past life as part of the gay community.

Q. What inspires you to make music?I tend to be attracted to stories that traffic in the political. I'm a big believer in the idea that art is one of the most powerful ways to change hearts and minds. When an audience is forced to embrace and see the common humanity in a character that they may have otherwise looked at as "other" they begin to carry over that embracing of our common core humanity into their every day lives. That alchemy inspires me.

Q. What kind of purpose does your music serve?I'm a musical theatre composer, so the vast majority of my music tends to be written in that context. I hope that it serves the purpose of changing hearts and minds!

Q. You have travelled around the world and have many cross-cultural influences like the Oud, what does that mean to you? How did you find these influences and why did you want to incorporate them?

I definitely have a little bit of wanderlust in me and love to travel. In terms of the Oud, that came about because of a specific show I'm working on entitled "5th Republic." It's an update of Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris," kinda like how "West Side Story" is an update of "Romeo and Juliet," or "Rent" is an update of "La Bohème." So, rather than setting the story in Medieval Paris like the book, we reset it to 1958 Paris. Instead of a priest named Dom Claude Frollo and a gypsy named Esmeralda, we have a right-wing Gaullist Senator named Étienne Deschamps and an Algerian refugee named Layla Bouazid. Rather than the threat of witchcraft and the church, there's the threat of guerrilla warfare and the state. The Algerian War of Independence and Charles de Gaulle's return to power serve as major backdrops. Anyway, the show has so many Algerian characters, and I wanted to be able to bring that Arabic/North African sound into their music. So rather than faking it, I started taking Oud lessons and studying Arabic music theory so that I was capable of being more authentic musically when writing those characters. Then I just fell in love with that musical world and kept on studying it.

Q. What have been some obstacles in your career you had to overcome? How did you overcome them?There hasn't really been a single concrete obstacle. One thing for me is that pre-transition, I definitely felt like I had an emotional cork. That definitely affected my work in that I only had the emotional energy to connect to the characters or stories I was writing so much before I hit an emotional blockade. Since transitioning those blocks have been removed. I think another big thing, and this is common for many artists, is knowing your worth. That goes to how you are compensated, how you stand up for your work and the stories you're trying to tell, how you work in a collaborative team environment learning how to speak up without being stepped on OR without overstepping.

Q. What current or future project are you most excited about and why?I'm working on an original piece called "MADAME" that I'm super excited about. It was conceived by a wonderful actor, writer, photographer, friend, and all around snazzy guy, Larry Hamilton. He brought me onto the project to write music and lyrics, and then from there he brought my writing partner Stacey Weingarten on board to aid him in writing the book. The show takes place in 1896 New Orleans and centers on Luc, a wealthy white heir to a plantation fortune, and his love affair with Clea, a creole trans girl who works in a brothel called Jarreau's. Firstly, it's just a rich musical time and place, so the score is a ton of fun to write. Secondly, I love that it's a slice of "pre-trans" trans history. What I mean by that is that these brothels existed a hundred years ago. People like Clea existed over a hundred years ago. People have this perception that trans is new. Medical transition is relatively new, but trans has always been there. There are trans stories stretching back into the ancient world. Lastly, we have a trans character who is a prostitute, and yet, we consciously don't fall into the usual tropes of the "trans hooker." Clea is a strong powerful woman. She's not tragic. She's not subject to the other character's whims. It ends up being the white cis male character who sacrifices for her, the trans woman of color. So we sorta turn that trope on its head which I find exciting.

Q. Our readers are queer youth all around the world, and we like to provide them with messages of hope. Is there something you would like to tell them?Inner strength, inner strength, inner strength. I cannot stress that enough. Learn to love yourself. That takes daily practice. That takes daily effort. But if you learn how to love every piece of you, no words, no person, no sideways glance can tear you down. The only way it can is if you feel shame about who you are. Also, do you. Don't let anyone tell you who you're supposed to be. Being LGBTQ is a beautiful tapestry and spectrum of existence. Don't let anyone tell you you have to fit inside a certain box and that goes for other members of our community as well. Lastly, as cliche as this sounds, follow your dreams, large or small, and be proactive in it. Set short term goals and long term goals and make a plan to achieve them. You'll hit bumps along the way, but if you keep your eye on the prize you can achieve anything. You are not less than a straight/cis person. You are equal. You are you.